Tools+for+collaboration

=Tools for collaboration Science=

There are loads of online tools that are useful in Science and most of these are not science-specific. These tools allow students to create and publish content by collaborating with others. The tools described here are free and are unblocked by the DEC.

__Prezi__
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Prezi is a presentation tool that creates non-linear presentations. If you are tired of looking at PowerPoint presentations, Prezi is worth exploring. Prezi presentations can be saved and viewed online and it can also be downloaded. Prezi is great to use for student to create presentations that show the scale of different sized objects. This prezi was done by a university but similar creations can be made by our students easily.

__SlideShare__
SlideShare is an online tool that allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations and embed them into wikis, Moodle spaces, Edmodo pages, Wordpress and many more. Viewers can also download the presentations. Here is an example of a presentation on the brain in SlideShare:

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__Voicethread__
A Voicethread presentation is a multimedia presentation that can consist of images, documents and videos. Voicethread presentations allows viewers to comment on the presentation in these ways: voice via a microphone, text, audio file or video via webcam. Voicethread presentations can be embedded into other websites.

Sample classroom activity: A teacher can create a Voicethread presentation on geological structures and students can explain how those geological sturctures have formed by adding their voice over the images.

Here is a video guide into how to use Voicethread made by an Australian teacher.

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__Glogster Edu__
Glogster Edu allows students to create multimedia posters. Posters can contain, text, images, videos and animations. Here is an example:

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__GoAnimate! and Xtranormal__
GoAnimate! and [|Xtranormal]are animation tools that allow anybody to make animated movies easily. Both GoAnimate! and Xtranormal have text-to-speech functions. The video below give a brief overview of GoAnimate!

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__Popplet__
Popplet is an online collaboration tool available on the web and iPad. Popplet allows you to create an online wall of multimedia sticky notes that can be text, images, videos and web links. It is a great tool for collaborative mind mapping. The video shows an overview of Popplet.

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This Popplet was made by a group of Year 11 students as part of their revision activities. Students were assigned a different section of a topic to summarise. They then had to check each other's work for accuracy. (Note: This was the first time this group had used Popplet so they mainly focused on text and images.) media type="custom" key="10288497" width="427" height="427"

__Typewith.me & PrimaryPad__
Typewith.me is an online document collaboration tool where students can collaborate on the same document in real time. The document can then be exported as a pdf. There is no registration or sign up.

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PrimaryPad is similar to [|typewith.me], but [|PrimaryPad] does not allow the document to be exported. However, students can still convert the webpage into a pdf and take a screenshot. There is also no registration or sign up required.

__Wikispaces__
Wikispaces can be used by students to collaborative create a website. Students can comment and edit on each other's content. Wikispaces also allows the integration of other web tools such as Glogster posters, Xtranormal animations, TeacherTube videos, Google Maps, etc.

Wkispaces can be used for students to create and publish their own content by collaborating with others. For example, a class of Year 10s made a Wikispaces site for School Certificate revision. Groups of students were responsible for creating a summary of different topics. The groups then had to check other groups' pages for accuracy.

This video shows the potential of using Wikispaces in the classroom:

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This science digital toolbox site is built in [|Wikispaces]. For students to use Wikispaces, the teacher must create a Private site and request the DEC to unblock the site. The unblocking process usually takes 24 to 48 hours.